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Fall of France
The Fall of France or Battle of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries that started on 10 May 1940, ending the Phoney War. The German invasion, code-named Case Yellow, entailed an armoured thrust through the Ardennes Forest, which bypassed the principal French defences of the Maginot Line. The German tank and infantry spreaheads would then threaten to encircle the main French defences and British reinforcements from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Just a week into the invasion, the German troops had broken through the principal French defences. General Hans von Sponeck's 22nd Infantry Division quickly overwhelmed the Dutch units defending the Valkenburg, Ypenburg and Ockenburg airfields, and the bombing of Rotterdam persuaded the Netherlands to surrender on 15 May. And although German forces in the attack on The Hague encountered strong resistance and lost 1,000 captured in counterattacks from the Dutch 1st Corps"By late evening, the Dutch had taken approximately 1,000 German prisoners, and Sponeck himself was among the wounded. For the time being the attack on The Hague was a failure." World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia, David T. Zabecki, Routledge, 2015, the German thrust through the Netherlands met with eventual success. Allied counterattacks from the air and land either failed, or were cancelled by the rapid progress of the battle. The British Expeditionary Force, along with the main part the French army, were still in the north and had not been affected. But the German breakthrough to the south now forced them into rapid retreat to avoid being cut off. On 20 May, German panzers units reached Amiens and effectively trapped the BEF, who now made for Dunkirk in the hope of making an escape to Britain. Dunkirk With the French defences collapsing, a British evacuation plan known as Operation Dynamo was hastily prepared by Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay of the Royal Navy. His strategy included the French Navy that would help the British evacuate the British and French armies. Between 26 May and 4 June, a period during which the panzer divisions halted the advance outside Dunkirk, 200,000 British and 140,000 French troops were evacuated to Britain, including 13,053"Of these, 211,532 were listed as physically fit British troops, 13,053 as British sick or wounded, and 112,546 as Allies, mostly French but including some Belgians." Britain, Volume 4, p. 4, British Information Services, 1944, 1945British sick and wounded. Nine allied destroyers were lost during the evacuation, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) suffered heavy losses protecting the evacuation from airbases in Britain. According to the book The British Army in France After Dunkirk (Pen & Sword, 2009), 40,000 British troops were killed, wounded or captured at Dunkirk. Around 3,500 British were killed in the rearguard battles and Operation Dynamo. "Enemy action against ships at sea and the beaches resulted in the deaths of some 3,500 British troops out of the total of 68,111 killed, wounded and taken prisoner during the retreat to Dunkirk." Churchill's Channel War 1939-45, Robert Jackson, Osprey Publishing, 2013 On 5 June, the German panzer divisions swung southwards and French resistance finally gave way, although not without heavy fighting. On 10 June, Italy entered the war on Germany's side with the Regia Aeronautica bombing the cities of Orléans and Marseille. "The Luftwaffe also attacke the Citroën works on the Quai Javel in Paris and targets as far away as Cherbourg and the Loire valley, while the Italian Air Force hits Orleans and Marseille." Forgotten Blitzes: France and Italy under Allied Air Attack, 1940-1945, Claudia Baldoli, Andrew Knapp, p. 7, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012Four days later, Paris fell, provoking the flight of the French Government to Bordeaux. The French authorities surrendered on 25 June, nearly two months after the beginning of the invasion. Second BEF The British 1st Armoured Division, 51st Highland Division (under General Victor Fortune)http://51hd.co.uk/history/valery_1940 51ST HIGHLAND DIVISION and Beauman Division continued to fight as part of the "Second BEF" but were forced to surrender at Forges-les-Eaux and St Valéry-en-Caux. During the final evacuation of British troops from St Nazaire, the troopship Lancastria was sunk with the loss of around 3,000 British troops, civilians and crew. Mers-el-Kébir Reluctant to take the risk that the French Navy would end up under Axis control, Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to present French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir with an ultimatum to sail to Britain or to a neutral port for internment. When this offer was rejected on 3 July, British ships bombarded the fleet, killing 1,600 French. Although this operation did much to assure Washington of the strength of the British resolve, it and the evacuation of Dunkirk did great damage to Franco-British wartime relations. References